Manipur News

By Tinky Ningombam

Some people say age is just a number. Sadly all practical theories seems to point otherwise. For people unwilling to face inconvenient truths, a diplomatic truce.

Just a few weeks back, on the eve of her birthday, my dear friend Linthoi went into a depression of sorts lamenting over aging, over the loss of an “era of innocence.” Call her a drama queen, but her words not mine. And I, true to my garb of an empathizing friend, played Oprah and tried to convince her otherwise. I told her about the rich experiences we have had, the maturity we have attained, the wisdom that our age has brought us and the inevitability of linear time and our need to be at peace with it. The futility of arguing with a philosophy scholar is one that only a first-hand experience will demonstrate. For my elaborate opinions gave her more fuel to enter into a debate that not only lasted for hours but managed to make both of us more confused of the presumably “mid-life crisis” that she thought she was having. The same state which I also partook by virtue of being of the same age.

The only good thing that came out of that conversation was our resolve to “never grow old”. That we vouched, we shall remain as true to our young selves and not become middle-aged ergo boring women who only talk about marital woes and skin problems.

Being in the wrong side of 20’s is in fact a slow and treacherous torture, more from peer pressure than anything else. Like someone just dresses you up for stage impromptu and throws you out to play your part without a rehearsal. Where we are expected to “act our age” and give up “behaving like a kid.” And somehow if you don’t, you are judged for being insecure. But that is life I guess, life means just action, no rehearsals.

The entire episode reminded me of Dorian Gray from Oscar Wilde’s book “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. For those who have not had a chance to read it, the story revolves around the “age-less” and quite narcissistic Victorian gentleman called Dorian Gray who wished that he would remain forever young and his face and body would not age a day. That in his place, his portrait picture should be the one to grow older and he was willing to sell his soul for it. In a supernatural turn of events, his wish is granted and he never ages a single day but the portrait does, showing every wicked frown, every heinous scar that his life of debauchery takes him through.

And so it goes, Oscar Wilde’s classic example of the Faustian crossroads that humans always seems to face in life. Are we willing to sell our soul for something that we believe is most important to us? Which in the case of “The Picture of Dorian Gray” was Dorian’s everlasting youth which he bargained for, leading him down to the path of crime and immorality. Therefore, making us question how vain we are, for our youth? How important is youth to us that we want to bargain the lines on our face made by a frown, a scar, a smile; signs of all the good and the bad in our lives, signs that tell of our passing time on earth.

A lot of people that I have met over the years have always told me that the only regret that they have about growing up is the loss of innocence. The “metaphorical” innocence or ignorance if I may, that is attributed to childhood. The carefree days where you are not expected to know everything or have an answer, in contrast to when you grow up, when you are expected to know everything and be wise.

But is ignorance indeed bliss? Will we be happier not knowing? Will it be good to forever trust people and be gullible to lies and be naïve to the rest of the world?

I truly think the grass is always greener on the other side. The self-important pain in the neck that I am, I know that I will always be restless to know. To know the answer, to find out the truth, to ask the unquestionable. So will I still want to be ignorant? No, I don’t think so. But has it made me happier to lose my childhood innocence? Of course not.

However I do believe that the protected environment that the most fortunate of children grow up in, not having to worry about earning a living or protecting oneself from physical dangers is an ideal world on its own but which is not the reality of life. The tragi-comic reality is that whatever muck and misery that adults seem to dive into, mingled with some momentary materialistic or man-made pleasures is the life that awaits us when we close that door of uninterrupted bliss. And in my personal opinion, the sooner one comes to terms with that, the better adept one will be to venture forth and prosper.

It is ok to be nostalgic about youth. After all, in youth, you are in the pink of health, you are not bogged down by responsibilities and you look as fresh as a daisy. But that is exactly why you have friends and peers, people who will age the same way as you and have similar ailing. How else will you complain and feel better?

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/06/eternal-youth-anyone/

By Malangba

On Buddha Purnima, I mentioned the name “Gautama” to my wife. Though I cannot claim much knowledge about his teachings I have had an unmistakable attraction towards this historical figure. The romance that I find around this figure could be because of my ignorance of the finer details which are lost to me. Yet, the personality of Gautama never fails to amaze me. The received notion is that his death was due to eating improperly cooked pork, some say mushroom. The details are not that important but the very everydayness of how he died. He died a very ‘ordinary’ death. The mundane, even profane some would say, reasons that led to his death point to the here and now. The way he died has been interpreted in a very interesting manner. Swine and mushroom, cleanses the world of the debris of life. Commentators have made a connection here. Buddha was a cleanser, just like mushrooms which decomposes the dead trees. If not for mushrooms, the world would have been veritable mess. If not for spirits like Buddha, the world would have been a veritable mess. The world now is still a mess but the teachings, the life of Buddha, to many, gives a respite to this veritable mess.

My wife has been critical of this romance that I find in the Buddha, “the enlightened One”, the Tathagata. There is an aspect to her criticism that has kept me thinking. She finds fault with the Buddha’s act of leaving his wife Yashodahara with their only child Rahul. I try to reason out with her that everyone has to make sacrifices, and here the Buddha made a sacrifice for the salvation of humanity. She has a ready answer in “but at the cost of injustice to his family”. I say, “ they also made a sacrifice, they are remembered because their sacrifice was a part of the Buddha’s sacrifice. To that she replies, “ he never asked them, he had to run from home at the dead of night – like a thief!”. Here, I had to pause for a while. I then replied with restraint –“ See, he left them knowing well that they would never face the dearth of anything in life, they were in the palace, she was the wife of the prince, his son was already a prince, he left his family surrounded in the luxury and abundance anyone could desire”. She didn’t bother to answer. But she had already won this duel of words. It did not take much time to realise what the unspoken retort was. The Buddha deprived his wife and son, which nothing in the world could replace.

This realisation that my wife may be right, as was the case in some other cases also, was unsettling. Is there no way to please everyone? If the Buddha was not successful then, perhaps, it will be a difficult proposition for anyone. I tried to find a good answer but none was satisfactory. On one side what my wife pointed out could not be ignored yet my conviction that Buddha did the right thing gnawed on the other end. The solution came from an unexpected telephone call.

I have a friend, whose religious affiliation is hard to determine. He called to inform me that he was in Sikkim to join a Vipassana meditation course of ten days. This, I came to know, was after a prior course of Tantra in Pakhara, Nepal. His was some sort of spiritual quest. The call was two days before Buddha Purnima last month. He came to visit me and my family enroute home, Imphal. He stayed with us for a week. He brought serenity and positive vibes to our home. Somehow his presence was relaxing. He told stories about his experiences with meditative practices and taught me the basics. Every night, when my wife was watching the fights conducted by one very talkative, hysterical and very popular news editor, we spent the evening, before bed time, talking about the importance of silence and such other things. Some of them did not make sense. We made many performative contradictions – talking endlessly about the importance of maintaining Noble silence being just one. We also indulged in some back biting – which I learnt is against moral precepts taught by the Buddha. I learnt many things from my friends in his short stay. But the important thing came the night before his departure.

Somehow, Buddha’s leaving, forsaking, if you please, his family for the answer to the riddle of suffering surfaced in the discussion. My friend enlightened me with the information that this issue was addressed by the Buddha himself by admitting that it was not necessary. What he said was that he erred, he made a wrong decision. To think that we try to pass of as angels when the Buddha himself admitted wrong-doings was another realisation of the illusions that we weave around ourselves. But that’s beside the point. What my friend said dissolved my urge to find an answer, to defend the indefensible act of the Buddha. It was a ready balm to the unsettling question that I was put to answer. I won’t say I was wrong. I shall say my wife was right. Buddha agrees with her.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/06/swine-mushroom-and-renunciation/

By M.C. Linthoingambee

We sleep a little bit more, we enjoy a little bit more, we feel a little safer and that is all thanks to the soldiers that works day and night to keep us safe. How many times have we all given something without asking for something in return? Drifting our faces into the pages of history we see the footprints of Shubhash Chandra Bose, Chandrshekhar Azad, Shahid Bhagat Singh. These are just the mention of a few for there are many others who gave their lives so that we can have today and tomorrow. “One individual may die for an idea; but that idea will, after his death, incarnate itself in a thousand lives. That is how the wheel of evolution moves on and the ideas and dreams of one nation are bequeathed to the next”. These are the words of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. So, if we really dream for a better India, maybe we can make it happen? There are many unwritten chapters that still waits in a corner to be discovered by somebody or someone. These hidden stories needs to resurface to relieve the tale again.

The time of the Kargil War in the wake of 1999 took a massive hit on the soldiers with the India and Pakistan fighting it out. There are many who laid their last breath just to leave a safer home for their families, children and most importantly us. The very order of the United Nations states the unprecedented prevention of a world war ever happening again as the wake of the two great world wars left unexpected suffering to mankind. So, why can’t we learn to shake hands and be friendly when we know of the consequences that might occur from our actions? To term it accurately we are more selfish than selfless. So, what has been happening for these soldiers over the years? The early return of the war left rewards for those that left a part of themselves into giving us a safer India which concluded with the promise of a hefty compensation of flats, a job and more. Today in 2014, several years after those days, these promises became blurred and slowly faded with each year that added to not owning up to those liabilities. Some are still waiting for those promises to come true while they run around, knock upon door to door to help them bring home the honor that is due to them. The Times Now Campaign under the #Sacrifice Forgotten is one of those few step that works to help achieve that forgotten faith that gained a voice for these martrys and their families that are struggling to keep their families up and running.

Times Now reported in July 2007 how Colonel Vasanth Venugopal, Commanding Officer of 9 Maratha Light Infantry silenced eight terrorists and in the encounter made the supreme sacrifice of his life. But today, seven years later the martyr’s wife, Subhashini Vasanth is yet to be given what is rightfully hers. The Defence Minister Arun Jaitley has assured that required action will be taken in Subhashini Vasanth’s case and has promised to address many such cases that have been brought to the Government’s notice. With the new Prime Minister at the helm, there is hope that maybe these promises will be made true. The Right to Life and Personal Liberty is one of the growing concerns that lays that all people be granted the same privileges of living a healthy life as all others. So, we will just be going by law in making a person’s life count. It is time that these forgotten heroes be remembered and cherished for their work and not thrown up like a crumpled paper pieces that lays beside our desk. As our birthright, we have all willfully surrendered our rights to the Preamble that reads as follows: “We, the people of India having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a (Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic) and to secure to all its citizens:Justice, social, economic and political; Liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;Equality of status and of opportunity; Fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and the (unity and integrity of the nation); In our Constitutent Assembly this 26th of November, 1949, do hereby, adopt, enact ad give ourselves this Constitution.” These written words at the beginning of the page of the Constitution of India is known by many and written on all school textbooks as a mandatory awareness of knowledge. It states to mean that we stand for our people and not rule over them. These Martrys are citizens same as “You and I” and not robots which can be built and rebuilt at will and adjusted. It is time we defended what was written a long time ago when we fought for our freedom because they are still struggling for that freedom.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/06/breaking-trust/

By RK Lakhi Kant

On the fringes of the forest
The city begins from here
Vehicles one after the other
Beep, bop, and whir at the red light
A new township coming up
Aware suddenly of the cuckoo singing
While walking towards the red light
A powerful sound, a pitch higher
Than the humdrum of the city
Natural sounds like the cooing
Are superior to the mechanical
Sounds which are the epitome of matter
All noises converge on the cuckoo’s song
The song says, “feel free”, and it is the
Bird’s song on my way out which dilutes
All other sounds produced by the city
Like a forest watch who protects the green land
The bird keeps the city/forest buffer intact
And provides calm to the mind
But somewhere down the line the song
Disappears among the city sounds

Cuckoo 2nd meeting

My way takes me back again to the red light
On another day
This time I find out that the
Cuckoo seems to be impatient, in a hurry
Unlike the last time when it was soft and composed
In its calling
So useless are our endeavors
When the cuckoo starts calling
So cheap all this materialism is
One small clean sound penetrates
And dissolves in a moment
All the cluttering city sounds
A thanksgiving we owe
To the cuckoo for showing we
Cannot be manipulated all the time
By the sounds that drive the city

Cuckoo 3rd meeting

Getting further away from the cuckoo’s song
Carrying the cuckoo in my mind
I head back toward the place I stay
Thinking and becoming more and more
Engrossed in nature’s revelation of its superiority
O! So pleasant this land is
But why is it trying to become a
Graveyard of spirituality
The song exceeds matter and provides a way out into
Aesthetics, spirituality
Ensures something which is positive
And negates the negativity of life in the city
O cuckoo! Unburden my mind from
The depths of materialism
I announce my dependence on nature’s kingdom

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/06/cuckoo-1st-meeting/